Both of New Mexico’s U.S. Senators—Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich—voted to confirm Wilson. Heinrich, who faced Wilson in 2012 as an opponent for his current Senate seat, voted to advance her nomination to the full Senate as part of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Udall served in the U.S. House at the same time as Wilson.

Wilson served as an Air Force officer in Europe in the 1980s and earned a master’s and Ph.D. as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England.

Wilson was easily confirmed despite questions about her post-congressional career.

The questions came during her March confirmation hearing and involved her opaque consulting with nuclear weapons labs in New Mexico that resulted in the labs paying back the federal government for some of her expenses. Wilson maintained she did nothing improper and was not implicated in any wrongdoing.

Wilson was also involved in the George W. Bush U.S. attorneys scandal. Wilson and former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici made phone calls to former New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias about his investigation into former state Senate President Pro Tem Manny Aragon. Iglesias later said Wilson and Domenici pressured him to indict Aragon.

U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, who faced Wilson in an famously brutal primary election for U.S. Senate in 2008, praised the Senate’s confirmation of his former U.S. House colleague.

“I’m pleased to see Heather Wilson confirmed as Secretary of the United States Air Force,” Pearce said in a statement. “Secretary Wilson understands the issues facing our Air Force both as a servicemember and a legislator. I look forward to working with her again to support Holloman, Kirtland, and Cannon Air Force Bases, and the health of the Air Force nationally.”

Most recently, Wilson was the president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

Trump’s second pick for U.S. Army secretary, Mark Green, recently withdrew his name from consideration after controversial statements he made on transgender issues, Islam and evolution came to light. CNN first unearthed those videos.

Trump’s first selection for U.S. Navy secretary withdrew his name because of possible conflicts of interest with financial entanglements, as did Trump’s first U.S. Army secretary pick.

We will add the reactions from other members of the New Mexico congressional delegation if and when we receive them.

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U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján, a Democrat, entering his sixth term in office, was unanimously elected the Assistant Democratic Leader for the next Congress. In a statement, Luján said he was “honored” to be selected for that position, which makes him the number four Democrat in the House.

All week, we look for stories that help New Mexicans better understand what’s happening with water, climate, energy, landscapes and communities around the region. Thursday morning, that news goes out via email.

The state of New Mexico will join a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the president’s declaration of a national emergency to pay for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. California announced last week that it would sue the federal government.

The groundwater below Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo tested positive for hazardous chemicals—and the contamination levels are more than 18,000 times higher than what the federal government says is safe.
A November 2018 site inspection report provided to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), and obtained by NM Political Report this week, details the contamination.

Gov. Susana Martinez left office with low approval ratings, according to Morning Consult.
Meanwhile, both of New Mexico’s U.S. Senators’ approval ratings remained over 40 percent, with a high amount of voters with no opinion. The pollster found Martinez’s approval rating among all registered voters in her final three months in office was just 35 percent, while 49 percent disapproved of the Republican’s job performance.

After a midterm election in which Democrats wrested back control of the Governor's Office and expanded their majority in the state House of Representatives, Kelly Fajardo feels almost invisible at the Roundhouse this year. Fajardo, you see, is a Republican representative in a Democrat-dominated House, where members of the GOP are now outnumbered by the largest margin in two decades.

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The state House of Representatives approved a $7 billion budget on Thursday, sending to the Senate a plan for the next fiscal year that would provide nearly half a billion dollars in additional funds for public schools but which Republicans say amounts to an outsize increase in government spending.

Matthew Reichbach is the editor of the NM Political Report. The former founder and editor of the NM Telegram, Matthew was also a co-founder of New Mexico FBIHOP with his brother and one of the original hires at the groundbreaking website the New Mexico Independent. Matthew has covered events such as the Democratic National Convention and Netroots Nation and formerly published, “The Morning Word,” a daily political news summary for NM Telegram and the Santa Fe Reporter.
Matthew has appeared as a panelist for the Society of Professional Journalists’ New Mexico Chapter’s panel on covering New Mexico politics and the legislature.
A native New Mexican from Rio Rancho, Matthew’s family has been in New Mexico since the 1600s.